This site is my way to share my views and general business and IT information with you about Microsoft, IT solutions for ISVs, technologists and businesses, large and small. I specialise in Windows Intune and SBS 2008.

Hi, I just got this alert from Windows Intune which tells me that the beta service will end soon and that I need to uninstall the beta software and if I have a full account, install the new software (or old software to then be upgraded) Important Notice Account: David Overton Associates Source: Path: Type: Important Notice Description We are pleased to announce that the new features and enhancements that were offered in the Windows Intune July 2011 beta are now commercially available! If you have a paid Windows Intune subscription, your service will be upgraded over the next few weeks, so that you can take advantage of these new features. You do not need to take any action. Your subscription and deployed Windows Intune clients will be automatically upgraded. Two weeks prior to your upgrade date, you will see an alert displayed in the Windows Intune administrator console that indicates the exact date and time when your subscription will be upgraded. If you participated in the Windows Intune July 2011 beta, please note that the beta service will conclude 30 days after the Windows Intune general availability date. After this date, you will no longer be able to access your beta account, and all account data will be deleted. If you choose to sign up for a trial or purchase the commercial release of Windows Intune, you must uninstall the Windows Intune July 2011 beta client software, restore your computers to their original pre-beta state, and install the new client software on all computers that you want to manage with Windows Intune. We highly recommend that you remove the client software and restore your computers to their pre-beta state, even if you choose not to continue using Windows Intune. An uninstall script has been made available to make this task easier. You can download the script here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=219678 . View this alert in the Windows Intune console: https://manage.microsoft.com/Site/App.aspx I’ve done a few uninstalls,...

Hi, I just saw this on the wires and wanted to share it, although please note that this build is for evaluation purposes only. You should not install this in a production environment. Microsoft does not license you for, nor support installing in these environments. You can download the preview package from by navigating to it in the download section of the connect site or by using this link . Please refer to Release Documentation for installation and uninstallation instructions. Feedback is very important to Microsoft. In order for Microsoft to gather feedback on any issues encountered while using this build, please submit all bug reports for this release using the bug reporting form on MS Connect , via the http://connect.microsoft.com/SBS web site. It goes without saying that in order to participate in the Beta Program you need to be signed up on the connect site. Thanks David Technorati Tags: SBS 2011 , Office 365 , Cloud , Microsoft , SBSC

I saw this and thought I would share it. Hyper-V R2, which is in beta already supports hot add/remove of drives, so native SBS 2008 Backup will work as youcan now dynamically add and remove those USB drives and they can be configured as pass-through disks so you will not have to create VHDs on them. Other interesting features for me were the live migration and huge memory support , all in the free version along with the management console! Hyper-V R2 BETA is available to test here . There is also an overview document that can be found here . In the overview document is the summary of Hyper-V as shipping today and the products as of tomorrow: Capabilities Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Windows Server 2008 R2 EE, DC Processor Architecture x64 only Yes Yes Yes Hypervisor-based Yes Yes Yes Product Type Standalone product Standalone product Operating System Number of Sockets (Licensing) Up to 4 Up to 8 Up to 8 = EE | Up to 64 = DC Number of cores supported by the hypervisor 24 (with QFE) 32 32 Memory Up to 32 GB Up to 1 TB Up to 1TB VM Migration None Quick and live migration Quick and live migration (EE & DC) Administrative UI Command line, text based configuration utility and remote GUI management Command line, text based configuration utility and remote GUI management Command line, remote management, and local GUI (Hyper-V Manager MMC) Management Existing management tools Manageable by SCVMM Yes (SCVMM 2008) Yes (SCVMM 2008 SP1) Yes (SCVMM 2008 SP1) Virtualization Rights for Windows Server guests 0 0 EE = 4 VM DC Edition = unlimited VM per proc Number of running VM Guests Up to 192, or as many as physical resources allow Up to 256, or as many as physical resources allow Up to 256, or as many as physical resources allow Storage Direct Attach Storage (DAS): SATA, eSATA, PATA, SAS, SCSI, Firewire, Storage Area Networks (SANs): iSCSI, Fiber Channel, SAS Planned Guest OS support Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows 2000 Server, Novell SUSE Linux...

There is a feature that I 1st found of Windows Home Server that can be applied to SBS, Windows Server, Windows Vista / XP and any other Windows system with Windows Search 3 or 4 on it. This feature is the ability to search the other machine’s index rather than the files, meaning that you can go to a file share and search 100s of GBs of files in a couple of seconds simply by using the Vista search box. The Search V4 Preview extends this ability to more versions of Windows. That is not all it does – see the note from the Windows Vista Team Blog : Announcing the Windows Search 4.0 Preview that has some information: Windows Search 4.0 introduces several improvements I'd like to call out making search even better in Windows Vista: With Windows Search 4.0, the Windows Search Team has fixed most of the reported bugs causing a majority of distractions users have seen since Windows Vista RTM - many of those bugs were reported by you. Great improvements have been made with regards to performance .Even now as Preview, Windows Search 4.0 has query response time about 33%faster than search queries in Windows Vista RTM. The Windows Search Team has extended Remote Index Discovery for PC-to-PC search to work on every supported version of Windows. This makes finding information on other PCs running Windows Search 4.0 quick and less resource-consuming. Now Windows Search can find information shared on a remote PC by accessing an index on that PC - and you will open files only when relevant to your search. This will also work if the user's profile is redirected. The Windows Search Team has implemented Rollback Recovery where your search index will roll back to the last known good state (this is good in handling disc write errors). If an error occurs, your index isn't rebuilt from scratch; only the newly changed files are added to the index, making recovery from system errors not as disruptive to the machine or the user Being able to find files isn't just important to consumers - it is also important to IT Professionals...

I created my Star Wars Deep Zoom preview and really liked it, but then contacted the author of the site to see how I could add more pictures and control the layout &/or host it myself. Normally when I ask these sorts of questions I get a response about "later" and "out of beta", but instead I got pointed to these 3 articles and I have to say Wow!! You can see what someone can do with this technology at The Hard Rock Cafe - http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/ Download the Preview of the Deep Zoom Composer What is the Deep Zoom Composer? Deep Zoom Composer allows you to quickly import your own images, arrange and position them to your liking, and export the final output as either a Deep Zoom Image or Collection that can be fed into Silverlight's MutliScaleImage control. This means that you too can use your own images and display them using our Deep Zoom technology. Download the Deep Zoom Composer However, having done this I needed a simple user guide. At this point the blog Expression Blend and Design : Deep Zoom Composer User Guide came to my aid where there is indeed the user guide to download. The tool is simple, but the guide helps you understand what you are doing. Finally, I had arranged my pictures, however the output did not have zoom and pan capability. Then I found the article Expression Blend and Design : Deep Zoom Sample with MouseWheel / Pan / Click-Zoom which basically enabled me to finish the job off. All quite simple and the output looks fantastic. In your Web Site project, inside your ClientBin folder, you will see a folder called vistaWallpapers. The vistaWallpapers folder contains the images, xml, and bin files Deep Zoom Composer (DZC) output. To reuse this sample for your own projects, delete the vistaWallpapers folder and import your own folder containing the DZC output. Once you have done that, open Page.xaml in your Silverlight project and change the source of your MultiScaleImage control to point to your new folder and its info.bin file in your Web Site project: Once...

The above technology is built using Silverlight 2.0 beta that was announced at MIX08. You can upload photos or import via an RSS feed. I did the later, bit it occurred to me that we should start something like this for SBSC and ISV partners. To see the effect, go to http://photozoom.mslivelabs.com/Album.aspx?alias=Doverton&album=1 and then zoom in and out using the +/- in the top left corner or the scroll wheel on your mouse. It is quite amazing! Hat tip to Steve for this one ttfn David Technorati Tags: SeaDragon , DeepZoom , PhotoZoom , Silverlight , MIX 08 , Developer , SBSC , Star Wars , Community , ISV

I've spent the day using IE8 and while it is faster, some pages have problems. If your seeing this, download this add-on to submit to Microsoft. Report a Webpage Problem Internet Explorer 8.0 Beta Add-On The Microsoft Report a Webpage Problem Internet Explorer Add-on allows the user to submit a report to Microsoft for webpages they believe are having rendering problems, scripting errors, or various other types of problems Download details: Report a Webpage Problem Internet Explorer 8.0 Beta Add-On To use, go to the tools menu and select Report a Webpage Problem Then you get to submit a page like this: thanks David Technorati Tags: Beta , Microsoft , IE8 , Internet Explorer , Application Compatibility , Support

We all new that the super standards mode was coming, but look at all the announcements today, including the downloads : IE8 and CSS 2.1 Testing Since I joined the IE team at the beginning of 2007, it has become clear to me how important it is for web developers to predict how a given browser will work. I’ve certainly heard and read how very important it is to web developers to minimize the cost IE8 and JScript As Dean mentioned yesterday in his post announcing the availability of the Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for developers , better script performance is of particular interest to the developer community. In conjunction with Dean’s announcement, the JScript Activities and WebSlices in Internet Explorer 8 If you’re like me, you’ve found that it’s pretty hard to keep track of all the new services and sites out there, let alone the ones we use every day. I bookmark my favorite sites and services, but still spend a lot of time trying to find them. A couple IE8 and IP Licensing Some of the first things users may notice in the Beta 1 release of Internet Explorer 8 are new features such as Activities and WebSlice. We recognize that the technology behind Activities and Webslice relies on innovations that have come out of the community, Why Isn't IE8 Passing Acid2? Although we said that IE8 Beta 1 passes the ACID2 test , some of you may be seeing results like the image above; we thought we should explain what’s going on. IE8 passes the official ACID2 test hosted on http://www.webstandards.org/files/acid2/test.html IE8 Beta Feedback It’s exciting when we have a new beta to release! The launch of IE8 developer beta is a huge milestone, and we have set up various mechanisms to collect feedback. Before I list out all of our feedback channels for IE8 betas, I want to explain what we Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Developers Now Available This morning at the MIX conference in Las Vegas, the IE team made eight announcements about IE8. The most interesting for many people is that a developer beta is now available. Download it...

Each month the TRM blog product this great summary of the Microsoft world in various product areas. The blog can be found here http://blogs.technet.com/trm/ News Help your customers securely deploy Windows Server 2008 with the Windows Server 2008 Security Guide! http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=92550 Every day, adversaries attempt to invade your customers’ networks and access their servers—to bring them down, infect them with viruses, or steal information about customers or employees. Your customers are looking to Microsoft and Windows Server® 2008 to help them address these threats. To assist customers in taking full advantage of the rich security features in Windows Server 2008, Microsoft has developed the Windows Server 2008 Security Guide. The Windows Server 2008 Security Guide provides IT professionals with best practices, predefined security templates, and an automated deployment tool to help strengthen the security of servers running Windows Server 2008. Supporting Your Family, Friends, and Neighbours http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=8287993 By Steve Riley, Senior Security Strategist, Trustworthy Computing Have you become a support professional outside of the workplace? Read this article and learn how to discuss security with your family, friends, and neighbours to better help them stay safe and secure online. More Security and Control for Mobile Devices http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=8287995 Learn how to add, manage, secure, and update Windows Mobile devices like you do Windows-based laptops and PCs. Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 provides robust security features and a comprehensive device management solution that helps safeguard your corporate data, reduce the cost and complexity of mobile deployments, and centralize and simplify Windows Mobile device management. Island Hopping: The Infectious Allure of Vendor Swag http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=8287996 The technique of island hopping -- penetrating a network through a weak link and then hopping around systems within that network...

IE8 is cooking along nicely. IE is one of those products that is highly impacted by standards and given the announcements Microsoft made about standards and interoperability last week, the IE team have made some announcements ( IEBlog : Microsoft's Interoperability Principles and IE8 ) Microsoft's Interoperability Principles and IE8 We’ve decided that IE8 will, by default, interpret web content in the most standards compliant way it can. This decision is a change from what we’ve posted previously. Why Change? Microsoft recently published a set of Interoperability Principles . Thinking about IE8’s behavior with these principles in mind, interpreting web content in the most standards compliant way possible is a better thing to do. We think that acting in accordance with principles is important, and IE8’s default is a demonstration of the interoperability principles in action. While we do not believe any current legal requirements would dictate which rendering mode a browser must use, this step clearly removes this question as a potential legal and regulatory issue. As stated above, we think it’s the better choice. The rest of this blog post provides context around the different modes, the technical challenge, and what it means going forward. Modes Clear terminology around the different modes in IE8 (as well as other browsers) is crucial for the discussion. Wikipedia, as usual, offers a good starting point. The article about “ Quirks mode ” describes how modern browsers (like IE, Firefox, Safari, and Opera) all have different modes for interpreting the content of a web page: Quirks and Standards. (The article also covers “Almost Standards;” let’s set that one aside for the purpose of this discussion.) Basically, all the browsers have a “Quirks” mode, call it “Quirks mode", and use it to offer compatibility with pages that pre-date modern standards. All browsers have a “Standards” mode, call it “Standards mode,” and use it to offer a browser’s best implementation of web standards. Each version of each browser...

According to the site Workspaces (WSS for Office Live users) is now not quite out of beta, but still has a lot to offer: Anywhere Access Save 1000+ Microsoft Office documents in one place Access them from almost any computer with a Web browser No more flash drives or sending yourself documents via e-mail Learn more Share with Others Invite people to your workspace You control who can view, comment, and edit your documents Stop manually merging versions from multiple people Learn more Extend the Microsoft Office Experience Open and save files directly from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Synchronize contact, task, and event lists with Outlook No need to learn a new program Learn more In terms of what is actually new: Public availability of Office Live Workspace beta at http://workspace.officelive.com with immediate access and no waitlist (English language version only) The easy way to save Office documents to/from the web Organise documents and projects online and work on them from almost any computer (full Firefox support) Invite others to view, edit or comment on documents and workspaces Full document versioning and time-stamping View and comment on documents in the browser, even if Office is not installed Create simple Web notes and Web lists (export to Excel and/or synch with Outlook) Share screen and documents in real time through integration with Microsoft SharedView Brand new features, such as an activity panel, notifications, direct links and multifile upload While this is all very nice, there is actually some excellent materials, including videos and more explaining much at Permanent Link to Microsoft Office Live Workspaces Goes Live and some commentary about Google vs Office Live here and from Tech Radar here which goes as far as to say: Microsoft has launched its equivalent of Google Docs - but without the ability to edit documents. It’s left the actual editing of documents to Office itself and offers Office Live Workspace as a way for individuals and small businesses to share files on the web. A nifty Office...

What is it? I know Vlad is not going to like this, but even he will admit that this has been on the cards for a while. Software plus services is coming to town in a bigger and bigger way. At the moment there is a limited beta in the US and (just like Google), it has the beta tag on it . So what have we seen today, well we have seen Microsoft stand up and be counted in it's commitment to the software-plus-services strategy. We have seen existing "on premise" solutions of Exchange and SharePoint be offered as a S+S (software-plus-services) alternative for those customers who don't wish to run these themselves. There is no "must switch" or "dropping" of the existing, very successful products, just more options for people. As a customer you would consider whether you get better value running these in-house yourself, or with a partner delivering them for you in-house, or completely outsources to another partner or Microsoft. As a partner you have to consider how you deliver in all worlds. While today you probably add value to "on premise" solutions you need to understand how and if you add value should your customer opt for the new services. If you want to deliver theses types of services yourself, look at SPLA agreements and the information at The Microsoft Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) . If you want to build solutions on top of those announced today then look at http://www.microsoft.com/online/partner/learn-more.mspx . Either way you can learn more at http://www.microsoft.com/online/default.mspx . Other's reactions As you can imagine, there have been a few prople covering this, from bloggers to journalists. Below are just some of the items I've seen so far: Press Microsoft to Expand Microsoft Online Services for Businesses of All Sizes (press release) http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Apps/Microsoft-Expands-its-Online-Services/ Microsoft moves further into the cloud.. cautiously http://www.ebizq.net/blogs/saasweek/2008/03/microsoft_expands_ondemand_ser...

Last week Microsoft announced SP1 for Vista to the world , but then said some device drivers were causing problems so there would be a delay to enabled those to be resolved. That is the device drivers, not SP1. Well, as you can imagine, there was a fair amount of noise around this, so the rollout has been changed to enable technical people who were on the beta and MSDN & Technet Plus people to get it much earlier. Someone once asked me why we could not get things on the web quicker - well, if you have a few million people downloading something at the same time it has a hit, so all releases, even system updates, have an element of staggering. From the blog posting Windows Vista Team Blog : Windows Vista SP1 availability for technical customers some salient points are: On Monday (February 4th), we announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). Overall, people are excited to hear that we have reached this milestone, but some are disappointed they are not able to immediately download it. <snipped> We've heard the feedback and I want to update you on our plans and progress for making SP1 available to our beta participants, our Volume Licensing customers, and our MSDN/TechNet Plus subscribers: Late Friday we made SP1 RTM available to individuals and companies who participated in the SP1 beta program At the end of this week we will be making the English version of Windows Vista SP1 available to Volume Licensing customers. Other languages will follow soon after Later this month, SP1 will be available to MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers For broad availability, we are still planning to release in mid-March, since we want to be sure that everyone has the smoothest experience possible. I want to be super-clear on one point: Windows Vista SP1 is final. It has been fully released to manufacturing and we do not plan to make any changes to the SP1 code prior to public availability. We are confident in the quality of Windows Vista SP1 and know that it will help improve our customers'...

I got the heads up on this on Friday, installed it today and already love it. Go to the MSN Direct site to learn more about what it is and how it works What is it MSN Direct for Windows Mobile is ready for a Technology Preview. It is a Windows Mobile Standard Smartphone application that connects to our information service and delivers the information that you care about – and it updates automatically – and you never have to enter an URL, or wait for a web page to load. What type of info can I get? Weather, Stocks, Top Stories, World news, Sports news, Entertainment news, Business, Travel, Tech, Health, even News of the Weird. *news includes: Top Stories, World news, Sports news, Entertainment news, Business, Travel, Tech, Health, even News of the Weird. Where do I get it from Download MSN Direct Will it work with my phone If it's in our Phone Finder , you're good to go. FAQ How much does MSN Direct cost? Microsoft does not charge anything for download or use of the MSN Direct application. Please note however, that downloading and using MSN Direct requires data connectivity from your wireless carrier, which may charge additional fees. Check with your wireless provider for its coverage areas and service fees. How do I get the MSN Direct application? 1. By Text Message: Enter your phone number on the website, and we will send a link to the download page directly to your mobile phone. 2. From Your Mobile Browser: On your mobile phone, open the web browser and go to http://phone.msndirect.com . Follow the instructions on the page to download and install MSN Direct. Other people have already started writing about it: http://www.modaco.com/content/Smartphone-Standard-News/265282/MWC-2008-Microsoft-releases-MSN-Direct-Technology-Preview-for-Windows-Mobile-Standard/#entry877361 http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/02/11/microsoft-launches-msn-direct-for-windows-mobile/ Personally I would say if you have a Windows Mobile 5 or above phone, download it today!! ttfn David Technorati Tags: MSN Direct , MSN , Windows Mobile...

I've been running Vista SP1 builds for a while and I like them. I don't like the process of changing builds which is "simply" a case of uninstalling the old build, letting it reboot twice, updating the registry, doing find updates in windows update, reboot, do it again, reboot, do it again, wait 15 mins, do it again, then let it install for a chunk of time, reboot twice more. Now, you won't have this fun when the "real" update comes out, but us testers simply enjoy this process!! To get the latest preview go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=529d992a-d69e-4c73-9213-7a7f3852c0ca&DisplayLang=en Vista SP1 Confirmed for February 15 – XP SP3 Too? Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is just around the corner. Despite the fact that Microsoft continues to point to the first quarter of 2008 as the deadline for the delivery of Vista's first service pack, it appears that the refresh will drop as early as next month. According to the Redmond company, Vista SP1 is planned for release by the end of March 2008. Microsoft has not shifted from the official timetable and failed to update it in accordance with the development of the operating system. However, it appears now that February 15 was confirmed as the RTM date for Windows Vista SP1. Mid February 2008 is a more realistic date for the launch of Vista SP1, and one that is at the end of the natural course of evolution of the service pack's development process. Taiwanese news outlet DigiTimes, doing a story on the DRAM industry in 2008, cited Pei-lin Pai, a spokesman for DRAM manufacturer Nanya, saying: "the PC market will rebound in the second quarter. The launch of an updated version of Microsoft Vista on February 15, if its prices do not go up too much compared to its previous version, may help boost DRAM sales," (emphasis added). Vista SP1 Confirmed for February 15 – XP SP3 Too? - KezNews.com I can't comment on the date, but mid-Feb is Q1 calendar year 2007. ttfn David Technorati Tags: Windows Vista...

Earlier this month on the IE blog there was some discussion about IE8, almost the 1st discussion about this - Internet Explorer 8 . Now they talk about the "Standards Mode" and how for those who want near 100% standards based web sites can live happily together. It is worth saying that it might end up 100% standards based, but since I don't think such a thing exists, all I will say is that is passes all the standards tests. Acid is one of these tests. I strongly recommend you read the the whole blog Internet Explorer 8 and Acid2: A Milestone As a team, we’ve spent the last year heads down working hard on IE8. Last week, we achieved an important milestone that should interest web developers. IE8 now renders the “ Acid2 Face ” correctly in IE8 standards mode. If you’re not a web developer, the details of this blog post probably aren’t all that interesting for you. I’d like you to know that we’re building IE8 for many different customers (consumers, web service providers, independent software vendors, enterprises, web developers, and others), and we’ll cover more details of the non-developer oriented work (e.g. user experience, reliability, security, etc.) in other posts in the future, after MIX . While web developers will immediately recognize what Acid2 means, I want to step back and offer some context for other readers of this blog who may not be familiar with web standards. Briefly: Acid2 is one test of how modern browsers work with some specific features across several different web standards. At first glance, this test seems simple. I think it actually offers a view into the subtle and complex world of web standards in a number of ways. Showing the Acid2 page correctly is a good indication of being standards compliant, but Acid2 itself isn’t a web standard or a web standards compliance test . The publisher of the test, the Web Standards Project , is an advocacy group, not a web standards defining body. When we look at the long lists of standards (even from just one standards body, like the W3C ),...

I got this e-mail the other day: Hi David,From your posting "How to install Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express - including how to install on Windows Home Server" it seems that you had some similar problems that I am experiencing regarding running wss3 and ssx on the same server. In my case it effectively broke the "search this site" option and I'm trying to find a solution to this do you by any chance now what is my problem? I keep getting the error message: The search request was unable to connect to the Search Service . Regards Peter After a bit of research the answer can be found at http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1256 . While I have not used this, the feedback from Peter was excellent "Thanks a bundle, This was the solution to my problem.", so I feel confident sharing it. ttfn David Technorati Tags: Search Server Express Edition 2008 , Search Server , Windows SharePoint Server , WSS , SSX

If you do plan to deploy Windows Vista then you need to be aware of the information that these guides can give you: Windows Vista SP1 Guides for IT Professionals These guides will assist IT Professionals in evaluating and deploying Windows Vista SP1 and are downloadable versions of the SP1 guides found in the Windows Vista Technical Library . (http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/90a564b9-34af-4a6b-937f-324e1862244b1033.mspx) Files in This Download The links in this section correspond to separate files available in this download. Download the files most appropriate for you. Deployment_Guide_for_the_Release_Candidate_Version_of_Windows_Vista_Service_Pack_1.doc Enterprise_Guidance_for_Application_Compatibility_Testing_and_Windows_Vista_SP1.doc Hotfixes_and_Security_Updates_included_in_Windows_Vista_Service_Pack_1.doc Notable_Changes_in_Windows_Vista_Service_Pack_1_Release_Candidate.doc Overview_of_Windows_Vista_Service_Pack_1.doc Download details: Windows Vista SP1 Guides for IT Professionals ttfn David Technorati Tags: Windows Vista , Vista , Service Pack , Service Pack 1 , Release Candidate , Documentation

I knew this was coming, but I've not seen it shouted too much. My machine feels more responsive and some operations as mentioned before are faster. If you read the Windows Vista team blog Windows Vista SP1 RC now available for public download you would think it is only available to MSDN and Technet customers. It does have some good pointers though. We're making available today the RC release of Windows Vista SP1, found here on MSDN and here on TechNet , with an FAQ here . I invite you to download, install and use the SP1 RC and let us know about your experience by providing your feedback here . Before you install SP1 RC, please bear in mind the following points of advice, detailed in this short article : If you have a prior version of SP1 Beta installed, you must uninstall it prior to installing RC. This is pre-release code and will change before the final release. This pre-release software is provided for testing purposes only. Microsoft does not recommend installing this software on primary or mission-critical systems. Microsoft recommends that you backup your data prior to installing any pre-release software. Windows Vista SP1 Release Candidate is time-limited software. It will no longer operate after June 30, 2008 and should be uninstalled prior to that date. Support is through self-help and peer support via the Windows Vista SP1 forum . Assisted support (phone, email and online chat) is not available from Microsoft Support for this RC release of SP1. Support is not available via this blog. If you install the Service Pack 1 Release Candidate, it is strongly recommended that you also plan to install the final version of Windows Vista SP1 when it is released in the first quarter of 2008. To do this, you will be required to uninstall this pre-release code. You must have a genuine copy of Windows Vista installed on the computer prior to installing the Windows Vista SP1 update. Thanks to all of you who've expressed interest in testing the RC! To get on the programme for Windows Updates based SP1 RE, have...

I just found the MSDN Evaluation Center online today to give you evaluation resources that you might develop against. These include BizTalk Server, Office Communication Server, Office Enterprise , SharePoint Server, SharePoint Designer, SQL Server 2005, 2008, Express 2005 SP2, Windows Server 2008. I've pasted much of the content, but all the download links etc are country specific, so I have removed those. Click on the link above to get to download this stuff! MSDN Evaluation Centre Welcome to the MSDN Evaluation Centre, the central location for all Microsoft developer product trials and beta evaluations. Try a product before you buy it or test the latest beta to see what is in store for the next release. Start at the beginning of the evaluation process and follow the new products as they go through to the final releases. Remember to check back often as new products will be added as they become available. As you evaluate your software, we'll provide you with comprehensive and relevant insights and information delivered to your inbox. Resources like: Webcasts | Virtual Labs | Community insight | White papers| E-Learning | Events Featured Evaluations BizTalk Server BizTalk 2006 R2 Regardless of the size of your organization, you need best-in class infrastructure. BizTalk Server 2006 R2 delivers enterprise-class infrastructure that enables you to connect .NET applications and infrastructure with your non .NET applications and platforms, as well as those of your partners. Office system Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Microsoft’s unified communications platform enables developers to efficiently build secure, productivity enhancing applications on top of an extensible software foundation. Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 provides a comprehensive suite of applications that developers can extend to deliver solutions that make data and processes more accessible and relevant to users. With Office Enterprise 2007 you can build solutions that give users the power to collaborate...

It's funny working in an industry where if you are not going at 50,000 miles an hour you are considered to be standing still. One area where Microsoft is speeding along is photography. In this post I will explore the announcements, the demos, short and long term products and then the future that lots of people are beginning to see. For me, the fact that people are already seeing such a future and its possibilities is very exciting (both the visions and the fact they are having them without drugs!! (humour)) Look at the recent events: Raw photo support in 2005 - Microsoft and Imaging Industry Leaders Unveil Support for Digital Photo HD (which some people thought was a JPEG killer.. tut tut) - HD Photo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia JPEG XR - JPEG committee supports Photo HD as next gen JPEG TrustedReviews - Official Jpeg Successor Is Microsoft's HD Photo Now this is all very nice, but so what - a better format for bigger pictures, that could be a bit like FAT disks getting FAT32 format, but it is not. Now read about Photosynth and Seadeagon and you realise that people are not just seeing a HD future, but a future where seeing details and accessing them is much, much easier: The demos by themselves are awesome - Chris Koenig : Seadragon and Photosynth If you haven't already seen Seadragon or Photosynth , then you need to watch this video from TED 07 . The speaker, Blaise Aguera y Arcas , is an Architect at Microsoft, and responsible for the Seadragon product. This is AMAZING technology - absolutely unbelievable what they've been able to do here. You can try out Photosynth for yourself today, but Seadragon itself is not publicly available (I can't wait to get my hands on this Seadragon demo)! The short term future is described by people like Pete: Microsoft & Photography - Pete's Eats I've been a heavy Photoshop user since v2.5 now but thought I'd do some research at Microsoft to see what kinds of things we have to offer too. I have to say, I was pretty surprised at the content...

I've seen plenty of blog entries saying this has not yet shipped, but I've just been to the download site and SQL Server 2008, November CTP is definitely there: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3BF4C5CA-B905-4EBC-8901-1D4C1D1DA884&displaylang=en There are several people talking about it, such as SQL 2008 CTP5 First Glance , however perhaps the best item I saw was from Steve Lamb who was offering " Would you like with free technical support to help you deploy Windows Server 2008, System Center ". I think that would be a yes :-) Microsoft Releases Another SQL Server 2008 CTP This third update includes compatibility with Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Server 2008. "SQL Server 2008 running on Windows Server 2008 provides customers with trusted and secure access, high availability through revamped failover clustering, and simplified scripting through Powershell," Francois Ajenstat, director of product management for SQL Server, told eWEEK here at the TechEd IT Forum conference, which starts Nov. 12. This latest CTP, which Ajenstat likens to a traditional second beta, has a lot of substance and new features, he said, noting that the SQL team is targeting one more CTP prior to the product's launch in late February 2008. This latest update to the software also brings with it new features, such as a resource governor, which enables users to define resource limits and priorities for different workloads to ensure predictable performance, and backup compression, which requires less storage to keep backups online and which runs significantly faster since less disk I/O is required, he said. Another new feature, transparent data encryption, enables the encryption of an entire database, data files and log files without the need for application changes. "Encryption enables organizations to meet the demands of regulatory compliance and overall concern for data privacy," Ajenstat said. Also included are new cube design tools to help users streamline the development...

From the http://blogs.technet.com/kevin_beares/archive/2007/11/07/windows-server-centro-is-officially-unveiled-and-has-a-new-name.aspx a small amount about Centro and the tech beta. This is produced by the same team who build SBS 2003 R2 and SBS Cougar. More on those next year. Windows® Essential Business Server is the new Microsoft server solution for small to medium businesses, with 50 to 250 client computers in their organizations. Windows®Essential Business Server offers a standardized server configuration that is designed to meet the needs of most midsize businesses. The configuration is optimized to meet the currently recommended practices for networking, security, collaboration, and remote access. The tightly integrated Windows Essential Business Server simplifies setup, migration, and licensing for Microsoft infrastructure server products that a midsize business uses most frequently. Most network services and resources are managed through a single Windows®Essential Business Server Administration Console, which is accessible from anywhere on the network or remotely over a virtual private network. Windows®Essential Business Server is installed on three physical servers. These are referred to by their primary roles in the network: Windows®Essential Business Server Management Server – Centralizes management of your Windows Server "Centro" network. Enables and manages worker collaboration and network services. Windows®Essential Business Server Security Server – Manages security, Internet access, and remote-worker connectivity. Windows®Essential Business Server Messaging Server – Provides messaging capabilities and manages network services. If you are interested in joining the Windows®Essential Business Server upcoming Beta 2 effort; Please go to http://connect.microsoft.com , Click on Invitations and sign in with your Windows Live ID (Passport ID). Enter the following invite ID: EBSE-VKDP-276Y . You will be asked to take a short survey. Once you complete the survey we will evaluate your application for...

Obviously when I wrote the last blog entry on installing search server , not quite everything was working, although I did not realise it until a few errors appeared in the event log. The errors appear below - one is a DCOM permissions error and the other is a Gather error. The DCOM error Event Type: Error Event Source: DCOM Event Category: None Event ID: 10016 Date: 09/11/2007 Time: 06:35:26 User: NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE Computer: HOMESERVER Description: The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID {61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1} to the user NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE SID (S-1-5-20). This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool. For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp. Fixing the DCOM error is all about setting permissions in the DCOM system. The magical application was IIS WAMREG admin Service. I worked this out by following the instructions in the KB article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920783 . The Gatherer error Event Type: Warning Event Source: Windows SharePoint Services 3 Search Event Category: Gatherer Event ID: 2436 Date: 09/11/2007 Time: 06:50:19 User: N/A Computer: HOMESERVER Description: The start address <sts3://homeserver/contentdbid={d067c159-4b98-4bb4-85d9-0d440121788b}> cannot be crawled. Context: Application 'Search index file on the search server', Catalog 'Search' Details: The object was not found. (0x80041201) For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp. This error relates to the fact that we have removed the search from http://<servername> and added a different virtual server name. If you look at http://www.kevincornwell.com/blog/index.php/windows-sharepoint-services-wss-30-search-setup-notes/ then you will see that you need to also change the Alternate Access Mappings. Do this and your event viewer errors will go!...

I wrote about the search products the other day, but I then decided to take it for a spin. The easiest server for me to install on was a Windows Home Server, so here is the process. Download the software and run the setup program and run the preparation tool: Now run the installation tool. For me, I don't want much installed on the C drive, but I do have some drives known as E and F. Once this is done, now go via the web to configure it. I asked for it to crawl my file shares, web sites and more I then did a test search and it all worked :-) Now, when I went back to the WHS sites, things were not so good. I discovered that the new site that Search Express clashed. There was 2 things I needed to do. One was to change the host header for the search site so that it did not clash with the default site. This is done in IIS admin and if you need instructions on how to do this, just drop a comment for me to know. Anyway, do this, but that was not enough. It enabled the default web site to start, but now search was broken. To fix that I had to set up SharePoint so that it knew about the new name for the site. The place that documents this is http://store.bamboosolutions.com/kb/article.aspx?id=10460 . Use the information to create a new site for "SharePoint - 80". Use the new host header you put in for the site and don't forget to add an entry to the DNS if needed! That was it, Search installed and WHS back to normal. ttfn David Technorati Tags: Windows Home Server , Search Express Edition 2008

I have only just been able to start playing with this, but it is looking good. I'm told that it does NOT YET load on SBS, but that the issue is being looked at (the auto config tools that make it so easy clash with the pre-defined IIS settings for SBS) and the plan is to support SBS too. I will look at how to hack it on SBS yet :-) More info can be found at Enterprise Search from Microsoft . So what is it? (basically, web, share and application search capability with lots of abilities, but some important ones picked out below). Familiar Search Experience Empower your users to quickly find the information they need through a familiar Search Center interface Pinpoint the most relevant information you need with recommended best bets , authoritative sources , term definitions , hit highlighting , and query correction . Retrieve concise and clear search results with duplicate collapsing , allowing you to quickly review a wide variety of relevant information. Stay on top of new information relevant to your work by subscribing to update notifications of your search results using e-mail and RSS alerts . Build upon a familiar user interface and application platform that lets you customize your search experience and the actions you can take on your search results. Search Center. Empower your people to quickly find the information they need through a familiar, web-style search interface and easy-to-use query syntax. Re-configure the layout of Search Center elements without writing any code. Content Summaries. Quickly browse textual summaries of content that appears in the context of your search terms. Hit Highlighting. Quickly spot where your search terms appear in search results and content summaries. Best Bets and Definitions. Highlights editorialized sites or definitions for common search terms likely to have a single authoritative answer. Query Correction. Receive helpful "Did you mean?" suggestions for misspelled queries. Duplicate Collapsing. Find the content you're looking for faster using more concise...

I thought I would repost this as it is a very often asked question. Eric who posted this has said as much as can be said today. I hope to be able to break silence soon on more :) The statement for me that has the most interest as many partners don't think about it is " Embracing Live Services". I can honestly say I don't know the details here, but for all those nay sayers about online / live / Software plus Service etc, this is another loud gong that the world is changing! Also, just one of those side notes, Exchange 2007 does not include Outlook anymore (Exchange 2003 did), so your customers must buy Outlook / Office to use Exchange outside the web based views. What is going to be in "Cougar?" There have been a few questions floating around about "Cougar," the next version of Windows Small Business Server, and what it will include and be based on. I thought I would post some of the information that is publicly available to help address some of these questions: Based on the Windows Server 2008 platform and technology wave Cougar will include these technologies: Windows Server 2008 Exchange Server 2007 Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SQL Server 2005 System Center Essentials Dramatically improved management, protection, and business productivity Emphasis on simplicity and integration Providing value for new and existing partners Embracing Live Services 64-bit only Microsoft Small Business Community Blog : What is going to be in "Cougar?" ttfn David Technorati Tags: SBS Cougar , Cougar , Software plus Service , Windows Server 2008 , Exchange 2007 , System Center Essentials

We all know that the next version of SBS will be based on Windows Server 2008 and that it will be x64 based. Many of the benefits of SBS Cougar will come from Windows Server 2008 (Longhorn), so if you want to be with the leading pack on SBS, you need to be up there with Windows Server 2008. ComputerWorld recently noted that the "long march" to the release of this product was signaled by the release of the latest RC candidate. It is worth getting this to start to understand Windows Server 2008. There are a host of features in the standard edition that should make life easier. For more info, access to code, virtual PCs etc on Server 2008, have a look at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008 . Also, since it will be possible to run virtual machines on this system (again), you can take advantage of the amazing Terminal Server features with your clients by using TS inside a VM too. From ComputerWorld - Microsoft Begins Buildup to Longhorn's Release The long march to the release of Windows Server 2008, a.k.a. Longhorn Server, continued last week, as Microsoft Corp. made the first “release candidate” version available for downloading from its Web site. Several IT managers who are testing the beta predecessors of Release Candidate 0 said they’re largely impressed, though not without some reservations. Robbie Roberts, IT manager at Windrush Frozen Foods Ltd. in Oxford, England, has been using the upcoming operating system in live applications for two months. “We were involved in the Windows Server 2003 rollout, and we had tons of [bug] problems,” he said. “We absolutely expected tons of problems with Windows Server 2008. But — hand on heart — we’ve had none.” IT officials in Georgia’s Fulton County, where Atlanta is located, said that Windows Server 2008 has made it easier to tighten security through steps such as locking down unused ports and preventing insecure systems from connecting to the county’s network. But, they added, there is still a lack of support for key third-party applications. As a result...

Just recently I have been reading about the improvements in the Live services and then I saw Steve's entry on Live Books ( Live Search Books...wow ) and thought I had better go see what was going on. I went to the live search and searched for my favourite author and sure enough, up came his books, but what was nice is that most people don't know that Robert Heinlein also had an interest in the US economy. Books referring to his works here also appeared. I was then able to see how much of a reference to him was made and even choose to view those pages if the publisher of the book allowed it. Oh, try http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=&mkt=en-US&scope=books&FORM=BBBB to get to the books search I also notices a load of other services you might want to try out: Web, images, videos, news, maps (I'll cover this later), MSN are all standard. Under the more tab though you get: Academic - I've used this to do research into academic papers that interest me Feeds - speaks for itself Health - See screen shot below Local - find local services - this is especially GREAT when using on a mobile - http://m.live.com Classifieds QnA - Ask questions and see if someone will answer them Macros - write macros to restrict / improve searches and then make them available to others The Book Search This is how my book search went - I put in the contents I wanted to see if a book. Not the books have summary information and then when you hover over them, more detail is provided, including where and how much of the book your looking at has references to the items you want to search Click on the book to see more To respect peoples property, the author may request a limit of how many pages you can view. To make this work, you might be prompted to sign in The pages in my book, with the detail I wanted to read Now for healthcare This is just a quick aside. I searched for back pain in the health care section - I got 3 sections of results - articles, web searches and sponsored links. Amazingly clear and simple. I'll...

I thought I should offer some clearer info on what is coming in Office Live Workspace Available at no charge, Office Live Workspace facilitates the following : Access documents anywhere. Organise documents and projects for work, school and home online, and work on them from almost any computer - even one not connected to the company or school network. Save more than 1,000 Microsoft Office documents to one place online and access them via the Web. Share with others. Work collaboratively on a project with others in a password-protected, invitation-only online workspace, helping to eliminate version-control challenges when e-mailing drafts to multiple people. Collaborators who don't have a desktop version of Microsoft Office software can still view and comment on the document in a browser. Extend Microsoft Office. Easily connect to Microsoft Office Word, PowerPoint ® , Excel ® and Outlook ® on their PC via the Web. Pre-register for the beta of Office Live Workspace today at www.officelive.co.uk Some people are equating this to Google Docs ( Microsoft Unveils its Answer to Google Docs ), but this is about sharing information using Office or other tools. It is not about 2 people being online at the same time editing the same document. While people talk about this I have never had a need to do this, so for me, all the functionality of Office, plus an online place to share and store them is much better. ttfn David Technorati Tags: Office Live , Windows SharePoint Services

I saw this and think it is amazing - I know there are already lots of translation services out there, but I like the way things are presented at this site. If you want to do free text or web site translation, have a look at http://translator.live.com/ . Once I'd tested translating a phrase or two (why do I always translate to Arabic??) I thought I would run UKSBSGUY through it. To see the site with just a toolbar to select the language - go to http://translator.start.com//BV.aspx?&MKT=en-GB#http://uksbsguy.com/ . You have a choice of several views - side by side top and bottom original with tooltip translation translated with original text in a tooltip I really like the last option, but play around with them yourself. - translated with English tooltips - English with translated tooltips - Top and bottom - Side by side ttfn David Technorati Tags: Translation , Live

I saw this and had to share.&#xA0; In the samples on the site it includes a RSS reader, Outlook tool and more! Welcome to Acropolis The Microsoft code name &#x201C;Acropolis&#x201D; Community Technology Preview is a set of components and tools that make it easier for developers to build and manage modular, business focused, client .NET applications. Acropolis is part of the &#x201C;.NET Client Futures&#x201D; wave of releases, our preview of upcoming technologies for Windows client development. Acropolis builds on the rich capabilities of Microsoft Windows and the .NET Framework, including Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), by providing tools and pre-built components that help developers quickly assemble applications from loosely-coupled parts and services. With Acropolis you will be able to: Quickly create WPF enabled user experiences for your client applications. Build client applications from reusable, connectable, modules that allow you to easily create complex, business-focused applications in less time. Integrate and host your modules in applications such as Microsoft Office, or quickly build stand-alone client interfaces. Change the look and feel of your application quickly using built-in themes, or custom designs using XAML. Add features such as workflow navigation and user-specific views with minimal coding. Manage, update, and deploy your application modules quickly and easily. Microsoft code name "Acropolis" - WindowsClient.net for information and http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9AF56576-217B-4599-9472-FFA7835F3BF4&displaylang=en to download the code, help files and samples. &#xA0; ttfn David Technorati Tags: WPF , Acropolis

Having been on holiday, I did not look too far before posting my blog post on Vista SP1. Then while reading other peoples blog I discovered that there was some more excellent information out there. As always Susanne has published her communication which I am sure will be updated as more relevant information for small business partners becomes apparent. Kevin has a link to the TechNet site for SP1 on his blog . Finally a HUGE amount of information is shared on the Vista Blog and this Vista Blog entry . Some are a little upset that the GPMC is disappearing, but I've never used it on Vista, so let me know if you care one way or the other. Finally, I got my invite on Connect to sign-up for SP1, so I will let you know more as I load it and am able to share. ttfn David Technorati Tags: Vista , SP1 , Service Pack 1

A few people have asked me about Vista SP1 - what will it contain, how big will it be, can you tell me more, so I thought I would share these two articles with you. One is a press report of a discussion with Shannon on http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Windows-Vista-SP1-weighs-in-at-1GB/0,130061733,339281624,00.htm which states things like: the company has revealed that test versions of the update are currently 1GB As for what's in the Vista update, it's mostly a collection of existing fixes and tweaks aimed at improving stability and reliability of the operating system ability to encrypt multiple hard drive partitions using Vista's BitLocker feature removable storage file format known as exFAT as well as for EFI (extensible firmware interface), an alternative to the BIOS (basic input output system) that handles the initial start-up of a system changes to Vista's desktop search feature in response to complaints from Google or http://www.betanews.com/article/Windows_Vista_SP1_Will_Uninstall_Group_Policy_Management/1188398636 Probably in response to a few users' bewilderment over the seemingly unrestricted accessibility of what had actually been one of Windows Vista's most requested new security tools, Group Policy Management Console, Microsoft announced today that the act of installing Vista Service Pack 1 will simply delete the tool altogether Finally a Q&A was released on the Microsoft PressPass REDMOND, Wash, Aug. 29, 2007 – Microsoft today shared details on its plans for the first service pack of Windows Vista, including a timeline for its release. To learn more, PressPass spoke with Jon DeVaan, Senior Vice President of the Windows Core Operating System division at Microsoft. PressPass: There has been a lot of speculation around the first service pack for Windows Vista. When will it ship, and why are you just now sharing information on Windows Vista SP1? Jon DeVaan, Microsoft Senior Vice President, Windows Core Operating System Division DeVaan : We’re targeting the first quarter...

I like new ways to visualise my web searches and the new tafiti beta from Microsoft is a great example of looking at things. Not only does it search books, web, rss, images and news sources, but it is also presented really well, you can easily save items and finally you can see a tree of relationships between the items found. To understand more about what it can do, have a look at http://www.tafiti.com/faq.html . Below is a sample search and the interface and some searches saved on the shelf that I can come back to at any time. Below is a sample tree view of a search. The amount of details can be controlled by the slider bar at the bottom of the screen ttfn David Technorati Tags: Search , Tafiti , Microsoft , Silverlight

OK, So I now have 5 Popfly invites to hand out. It you want one, e-mail me via this link ( send request ). I'll look at the invites on Monday and send out some invites. thanks David Technorati Tags: Silverlight , popfly , invites

I saw this blog entry and just had to share it - a number of Silverlight application (don't know how many will work with the updated Silverlight builds) - WPF Cornucopia - A selection of WPF-based applications . Below are some of my favourites. There are many more on the blog entry Some cool WPF and Silverlight applications that you can download or play with today. The deployment model has been added so that you know what you are getting into as far as installation goes. Lots are using ClickOnce .application files and .xbaps, so installation is trivial! My Web Pages Starter Kit New with Silverlight Demo (Web Application) New York Times Reader Next-generation online reading experience for the NY Times (MSI) Microsoft Calendar Printing Assistant Generate printed calendars from your Outlook schedule (MSI) Microsoft Expression Blend Designer tool for building WPF experiences (MSI) Microsoft Expression Design Illustration and graphic design tool (MSI) Microsoft Windows Live for TV 3D access to Messenger contacts from Media Center or IE (MSI) Wikipedia Explorer 3D exploration of related articles from Wikipedia (Application) iBloks Mashup application for creating 3D movies (MSI) RikReader RSS Reader that integrates with Internet Explorer 7 (Application) Nostalgia Yahoo! Flickr browser and photo manager (Application) Cine.View Netflix movie queue manager (Application) Actipro Wizard A control for building wizard dialogs in WPF (XBAP) British Library Turning the Pages British Library's 'virtual viewer' for some of their most precious books (XBAP) ITN Hub Player Video clips and news stories from ITN (Application) Evolution Media Center HTPC Front-end with stunning animations and dynamic XAML-skinning (ZIP) WeatherNews Weather visualization (XBAP) DOSV Computer Configuration (XBAP) Roxio Central DVD and CD Burning Software (Application) 90 Degree's Radius Reporting Tool for Business Data (Application) Forbes.com Reader News Reader Application from Forbes.com (Application) Seattle Post -Intelligencer PI Reader...

Many years ago I used to do database development and my preferred environment was FoxPro. Well, were now on version 9 and the latest service pack is in beta. Have a play, but think how you can move to Access or SQL in the future. Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 Service Pack 2 and "Sedna" - Beta This download contains the BETA release for Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2 and the "Sedna" add-ons. This release has two parts: The Sedna Beta download contains six components: VistaDialogs4COM, Upsizing Wizard, Data Explorer, NET4COM, MY for VFP and VS 2005 Extension for VFP. The VFP 9.0 SP2 Beta download contains a patch that can be applied to VFP 9.0 or VFP 9.0 SP1. In addition to fixes to the core product, this patch contains significant enhancements to the Reporting features. Note that the SP2 patch can only be applied to VFP 9.0 or VFP 9.0 SP1. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=05A0E7C9-43C1-417F-8810-AE7D7C66BAC8&displaylang=en ttfn David Technorati Tags: Foxpro , beta , service Packs

As you know SQL 2005 has been released and we are already seeing SQL 2008 on the horizon. To keep up to date and step into the future the following should be able to help with understand the products, finding information about solutions using them and developing solutions using them, SQL Server 2005 SQL Server Premier Field Engineers Deliver SoundBytes The UK SQL Server PFE team is preparing a series of SQL Server SoundBytes aimed to deliver proactive content to our Premier customers via LiveMeeting. Premier SoundByte sessions will be ideal for customers who need proactive information, for whom it may not be convenient to leave the office to come to a workshop. These sessions are set to run from the beginning of September 2007 through to the end of December 2007 and will range from Clustering a SQL Server 2005 Database System, to Database Mirroring, Configuration Best Practices through to SQL Server in a SAN Environment, Corruption / Detection and Recovery of a SQL Server 2005 System. Please contact your TAM if you are interested in attending a SoundByte Session and they will arrange your attendance for the specific topic, agenda and date / time. For more information regarding these SQL Server 2005 SoundBytes, checkout the UK SQL Server Premier Blogsite : http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/thepremiers/ SQL Server 2005 Books Online (May 2007) Download an updated version of Books Online for Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Books Online is the primary documentation for SQL Server 2005. The May 2007 update to Books Online contains new material and fixes to documentation problems reported by customers after SQL Server 2005 was released. Refer to "New and Updated Books Online Topics" for a list of topics that are new or updated in this version. Topics with significant updates have a Change History table at the bottom of the topic that summarizes the changes. Beginning with the February 2007 update, SQL Server 2005 Books Online reflects product upgrades included in SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2). http://www.microsoft...

[updated to correct grammar in title - thanks to Warren Jacobi for pointing it out to me] I have been hearing about these at work - I don't have them yet, so can't comment on them, but apparently they will be going to trial soon and then out via updates. 938979 Vista Performance and Reliability Pack This update resolves a number of individual issues which may be affecting some computers running Windows Vista. These issues have been reported by customers using the Error Reporting service, product support, or other means. Installing this update will improve the performance and responsiveness for some scenarios and improves reliability of Windows Vista in a variety of scenarios. Some examples of the improvements contained in this update are: • Improves performance in resuming back to the desktop from the Photo and Windows Energy screensaver. • Resolves an issue where some secured web pages using advanced security technologies may not get displayed in Internet Explorer on Windows Vista. • Resolves an issue where a shared printer may not get installed if the printer is connected to a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 system and User Access Control is disabled on the Vista client. • Resolves an issue where creating AVI files on Vista may get corrupted. • Improves the performance in calculating the ‘estimated time remaining’ when copying/moving large files. • Improves performance in bringing up Login Screen after resuming from Hibernate. • Resolves an issue where synchronization of offline files to a server can get corrupted. • Resolves a compatibility issue with RAW images created by Canon EOS 1D/1DS Digital SLR Camera which can lead to data loss. This only affects RAW images created by these two specific camera models. • Resolves an issue where a computer can lose its default Gateway address when resuming from sleep mode. • Improves the performance when copying or moving entire directories containing large amounts of data or files. • Improves the performance of Vista’s Memory Manager in specific customer scenarios...

I saw on the OneCare blog that a new beta is out this can be signed up for at Windows Live OneCare 2.0 Beta . I like OneCare - while it has it cranky moments (like I have to manually remove the old product to install the beta) it works better than some others I could mention without killing my machine or network. It is the product that I have bought for my home to protect it. According to the sign up site, this is what OneCare does. Windows Live OneCare 2.0 Beta - All-in-one security and performance for all your PCs Windows Live OneCare is an automatically self-updating PC care service that's on whenever your PC is on, helping provide persistent protection against viruses, hackers, and other threats. It also performs regular tune-ups to help keep your PC running at top speed, and helps you back up important documents. Runs quietly in the background, providing anti-virus, anti-spyware, online identity and scam protection (anti-phishing) and firewall protection Updates itself to help you keep ahead of the latest threats Runs regular PC tune-ups, even checking for ways to shorten PC boot-up time Provides one-click solutions to most problems Makes backups a breeze Lets you see the status of all your computer systems at a glance As for improvements on the Blog they say: Here’s a quick overview of the new features we’ve added to OneCare version 2.0 to help keep users’ PCs and networks safe, reliable and performing well: Multi-PC and home network management. Helps ease management of multiple-PC environments by providing a single navigation bar for monitoring the security and maintenance of networked computers. Also enables one-click actions to resolve issues among computers within a home PC network. Printer sharing support. Makes it easy to connect printers to local networks so all users in the vicinity can use the same printer. Start-time optimizer. Speeds PC boot time by removing rarely used applications from start-up menu. This helps to address one of the noticeable areas of frustration for PC users as time goes on...

I was jumping around the web and found this blog - definitely something to add to your readers. Below are just the 3 most recent Server Core blog entries that I think are all of massive interest. If you want a version of server that is so cut down that does not have .Net installed, does not have a GUI and so on - Core is for you. Server Core TechNet Webcast I did a TechNet Web cast on Server Core yesterday. If you missed it, it is now available at: http://www.microsoft.com/events/EventDetails.aspx?CMTYSvcSource=MSCOMMedia&Params=%7eCMTYDataSvcParams%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ID%22+Value%3d%221032341828%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ProviderID%22+Value%3d%22A6B43178-497C-4225-BA42-DF595171F04C%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22lang%22+Value%3d%22en%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22cr%22+Value%3d%22US%22%2f%5e%7esParams%5e%7e%2fsParams%5e%7e%2fCMTYDataSvcParams%5e There were a couple of questions at the end regarding networking technologies that I didn’t know off the top of my head. Here are the answers: What version of SNMP is supported in Windows Server 2008? SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c see http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa379141.aspx for more info. How to enable/disable the Scalable Networking Pack (SNP) functionality in Windows Server 2008? You can use netsh interface tcp set global Andrew Posted Friday, June 29, 2007 1:18 PM by amason | 0 Comments IIS in Server Core For those of you at TechEd recently or who saw the articles, IIS is now a role included in the Server Core installation option. If you have access to the recently released CTP build, IIS is available for you to start testing. Because Server Core does not currently have any managed code support, IIS does not support ASP.NET when used on Server Core. The IIS PowerShell cmdlets are all based on WMI, so they can be used to remotely manage IIS running on a Server Core installation. Andrew Posted Tuesday, June 26, 2007 8:11 AM by amason | 4 Comments Step by Step guide for Server Core The Server Core step by step guide is now available in two locations 1 – To read online or print...

IIS7 is coming in Windows Server 2008 (Longhorn). Microsoft is hosting microsoft.com using it and you can with others too. This information is from Technet. More free IIS7 Web hosting offers hit the Web Posted 6/15/2007 10:29:00 PM Since my last post introducing the bleeding edge IIS7 hosters who started offering free hosting on Beta 3, several new Web hosters joined the mix, including gate.com, parking.ru and myhosting.com who went live today! If you're looking for a free Web ... http://blogs.iis.net/bills/archive/2007/06/15/more-free-iis7-web-hosting-offers-hit-the-web.aspx www.Microsoft.com is live on IIS7 beta 3 - are you? Posted 6/15/2007 8:59:04 AM The www.Microsoft.com guys have been running IIS7 on some of their servers since early beta days, but I was excited to get an email this week which announced that they are running IIS7 on all of their servers! (except for a single box which ... http://blogs.iis.net/bills/archive/2007/06/15/www-microsoft-com-is-live-on-iis7-beta-3-are-you.aspx TechEd Video: IIS7 Hosting and Server Core Posted 6/15/2007 8:44:00 AM A new video has been posted up on the Virtual TechEd site called the IIS7 Customer Experience, featuring Mario Juarez, Eric Woersching, Jess Coburn and Carlos Caneja. WMV Video: IIS7 Customer Experience ... http://blogs.iis.net/bills/archive/2007/06/15/teched-video-iis7-hosting-and-server-core.aspx ttfn David Technorati Tags: IIS7 , Longhorn , Windows Server 2008

IIS7 is the web server in Windows Server 2008 and is not only already getting great press, but is already running Microsoft.com for us !! Once again, pinched from Technet. Administering IIS7 on Server Core Installations of Windows Server 2008 Posted 6/26/2007 3:34:00 PM As you may have seen from TechEd 2007 announcements and recent Bill Staples’ (IIS Product Unit Manager) blog, IIS7 is now supported on Server Core installation option of Windows Server 2008. We are hoping to address customer requests by offering lo ... http://blogs.iis.net/metegokt/archive/2007/06/26/administering-iis7-on-server-core-installations-of-windows-server-2008.aspx IIS7 on Server Core - June CTP build released! Posted 6/26/2007 3:06:00 PM I'm excited to announce that a new build of IIS7 and Windows 2008 Server is available for testing by Beta testers. This build includes updates and fixes made since the Beta 3 release earlier this year, and includes the previously announced IIS7 on Se ... http://blogs.iis.net/bills/archive/2007/06/26/iis7-on-server-core-june-ctp-build-released.aspx BlueDragon/CFML : an awesome IIS7 extensibility story Posted 6/25/2007 10:35:00 AM I've blogged a few times about the extensibility of IIS7, but here is a real world example that provides a really concrete idea of the real possibilities: Vince Bonfanti just announced end-to-end BlueDragon/CFML integration with IIS7 including core s ... http://blogs.iis.net/bills/archive/2007/06/25/bluedragon-cfml-an-awesome-iis7-extensibility-story.aspx Catalyst Software Publishes In-depth IIS7 Whitepaper for .NET Developers Posted 6/12/2007 1:55:29 PM Scott Seely just published a 30 page whitepaper on IIS7. It includes a great overview of many of the new IIS7 features and architecture, along with lots of great code samples for .NET developers. This is especially helpful if you're looking for ... http://blogs.iis.net/bills/archive/2007/06/12/catalyst-software-publishes-in-depth-iis7-whitepaper-for-net-developers.aspx ttfn David Technorati Tags: IIS7 , Longhorn , Windows...

I have grabbed these security tit-bits from Technet this month and thought I would share them with you. Expect to be playing with Forefront in one form or another with a year, so might as well see what it does now :-) Microsoft Unveils Next-Generation Forefront Business Security Solution Codename "Stirling" http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6951832 Announced this month, the new Microsoft Forefront solution, codename "Stirling," is a single product that will deliver unified security management and reporting with comprehensive, coordinated protection across client, server applications, and network edge. "Stirling" acts as a distributed system, sharing and correlating information to identify complex threats, and dynamically responding to protect the organization. Microsoft Forefront Client Security 120-Day Trial Is Available http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6959785 Microsoft Forefront Client Security 120-day trial version is available for evaluation, a security solution that helps protect business desktops, laptops, and server operating systems from viruses, spyware, and other current and emerging threats. - Read how other IT professionals use Forefront Client Security http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6959833 - Take the virtual labs http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6959834 - Download the trial software http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6959835 Microsoft Security Awareness Toolkit http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6951861 Guidance, samples, and templates for creating a security-awareness program in your organization. Microsoft Forefront Server Security Management Console Beta 2 Forefront Server Security Management Console allows administrators to easily manage Forefront Security for Exchange Server, Forefront Security for SharePoint, and Microsoft Antigen. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2048daae-b9f2-4612-ada9-51537a5479ca&DisplayLang=en Microsoft Forefront Server Security Management Console Beta 2 User Guide Forefront Server Security Management Console allows administrators...

Windows Server 2008: Maximize Control, Flexibility, and Protection See how Windows Server 2008 can help you increase the flexibility of your server infrastructure. Use the online resources to learn how you improve your organization's networking infrastructure, security, server performance, and reliability. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7009024 Windows Server 2008: Maximize Control, Flexibility, and Protection > Overview Spend less time on day-to-day tasks and more time adding value to your business with this next-generation server operating system. Windows Server 2008 helps you to increase the flexibility of your server infrastructure while saving time and reducing costs. Powerful new management tools and security enhancements allow you to have more control over your servers while providing advanced protection so you can spend less time on everyday tasks and more time bringing greater value to your organization. Leverage these online resources to explore Windows Server 2008 today. Webcasts Watch these 90-minute Windows Server 2008 webcasts and learn how your organization can leverage the enhancements in Windows Server 2008. Tune in for live webcasts and stream or download webcasts for on-demand viewing. Virtual Labs Try out Windows Server 2008 during a virtual lab. It's simple—no complex setup or installation is required. You get a downloadable manual and a 90-minute block of time for each module, and you can sign up for additional 90-minute blocks anytime. Podcasts Stream or download these TechNet audio podcasts onto your favorite podcast software or mobile device. These podcasts are free and do not require registration—just click, listen, and learn about Windows Server 2008. Chats Join an online, text-based question and answer session in real time from a chat room. This is your opportunity to interact with Microsoft experts on Windows Server 2008, provide feedback, and get answers to your tough questions. Understand the Server Core Option for Installing Windows Server 2008 The Server Core installation...

Hello, remember that "longhorny" thing coming later this year? Well it just got another step closer, however the run is that you have to be a TechNet, MSDN or Connect member to get it. Some points to re-iterate - this is the LAST 32-server OS from Microsoft - Windows Server 2008 R2 will be 64-bit (like Cougar) only. You will have to go away and learn about this server to become familiar with Cougar, so at the very least plan to learn it, if not before release, soon after otherwise you will have to learn even more when Cougar releases - and that will be plenty! I picked up this item from Network World that might help a bit. This is the first CTP since Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 was released in April. Microsoft officials say 200,000 copies of Beta 3 have been downloaded . With the new CTP, Internet Information Server (IIS) 7.0 is now an installation option under the Server Core feature of the server. Server Core is made up of the Windows kernel and a set of infrastructure “roles,” which install only the components needed for any of eight specific functions: Active Directory, Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services, DHCP, DNS, File, Print, Windows Media Services and Windows Server Virtualization (when it ships). The idea is to make deployment less complex and more secure by eliminating unneeded services and installing only the parts of the OS needed for a specific workload. IIS 7.0 lets users define a configuration using an XML schema architecture to more easily manage configuration of multiple deployments of the software. It also has a new feature called Failed Request Tracking that helps pinpoint errors in IIS and applications, and allows diagnosis while the software is still running. Windows Server 2008, which is slated to ship by the end of the year, is focused on three primary areas: management, including Server Core; security , such as BitLocker drive encryption and Read-only Domain Controllers; and performance, including a redesigned TCP/IP stack. The server also represents the gateway into the...

I saw this and thought those of you with Mac customers might find this useful if Office 2007 is around or potentially around in their businesses. Also of note is the fact that beta, trial and RTM seems to be very blurred today. Do you ever deploy beta code? I do, often in small environments with big warning labels, but I do do it. Following on from some of your less than exuberant feedback about the new Mac converters, I looked into it. To summarise, the Mac BU have released the beta 1 of the file format converters of Office for Mac. You can download the converter for Word documents here . More info is at the ever useful macmojo blog First thing to point out is that this is a BETA and also that it is a BETA 1. There is a bug-ette in that apparently it doesn't handle some reserved characters from non-english languages or some special Unicode characters such as ™. Any docs that have these characters seem to screw up or don't convert at all. Apparently the issues with Unicode was documented in the help with the beta. There is a fix which will roll out with beta 2 of the converter which is due out soon but I can't tell you when. This is good to know but doesn't answer why it apparently needs admin rights to run. What interests me about this is people's expectation for product quality from a beta 1 now. I remember the day when anything short of RTM was not to be used in production and when beta 1 would be considered only for the enthusiast. Now that we live in the world of Internet startups, betas seem to be the norm. Office Rocker! : beta by far: the role of trial software - click for more! ttfn David Technorati Tags: Mac OS X , Mac Office , Office 2007 , beta

I saw this and while it is old, thought you might like it: Participate in the Evolution of the Future Microsoft Office Versions Microsoft is committed to continue building solutions that address your needs and requirements. As part of the process for building future solutions, the Microsoft Office International Planning team is recruiting an international user panel. The goal for this panel will be to contribute in helping the Product Planning team get an in-depth understanding on users' habits, needs and requirements. We are convinced that listening to users' feedback is key to the development of great solutions and products. If you would like to participate, please complete the questionnaire. ttfn David Technorati Tags: Office 14

Don't you love the way the title of a product described what it is? While this product does what it says on the tin, it misses out the most important thing - what can you connect Outlook to. The answer is e-mail and contacts based on our Hotmail service, so this includes OfficeLive. If you sign up to one of the subscription OfficeLive services (i.e. you pay us to use it) then you get a connector which can do all this AND synchronise your calendar items too. Once in Outlook you can do all the searching, filing and manipulation you want to do. Today you can now download the beta of the next version of the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector. Download: Microsoft Office Outlook Connector (Beta) The Microsoft Office Outlook Connector is designed to let you access your Windows Live Hotmail account through Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007. You will be able to download and install the Connector to sync up your email and contacts in Windows Live Hotmail for free. However, if you are a paid subscriber of MSN Premium, Office Live Essentials, or Office Live Premium you will get the added functionality of being able to sync up your calendar, tasks and notes from Outlook to Windows Live Hotmail. I know many of you probably took note to the statement made on the download page of being able to "synchronize your Windows Live Calendar in Outlook". Windows Live Hotmail currently has a built in calendar service which is essentially your Windows Live Calendar. Your calendar from Outlook is published and viewable through this service in Windows Live Hotmail. The Windows Experience Blog : Microsoft Office Outlook Connector Beta Now Available ttfn David Technorati Tags: Outlook , OfficeLive , Sync , beta

I have a Media Center, Home Server, Xbox, Xbox 360, SBS and other machines in my house. The under TV box hides the Xbox and Media Center, the 360 is in the bedroom and the home server (& SBS box) are in the study. I learnt a long time ago that IF I wanted something like Home Server in the living space I needed it to look good. This is one example of what looking cool might be. There is obviously much more to Home Server, so visit the blog if this is a new area for you. More Hockey Puck Photos Heh. Joel just sent me a couple more pics of the "hockey puck". This thing is so amazingly cool that I just have to rant some more about it. First, we commissioned Carbon Design , a local design firm, to dream up some really cool home server form factors about 2 years ago. After a couple of iterations we narrowed it down to 3 ideas: the cube, the slate, and the hockey puck. Carbon built us a few foam models of each of these as well as a bunch of cool looking renderings. These served us well for while as tools for illustrating the concept to executives and partners. As CES 2007 approached, late last year, we decided we needed a working prototype. The goals were to build something that was inanely cool looking, stretched the envelope on size, and expressed the idea that Windows Home Server provides a whole house solution. We re-engaged with Carbon to build a working version of the hockey puck. In a very short timeframe they created 3 working models. Each is based on a nano-ITX mainboard from VIA and 2.5" HDDs. Other cool features: Windows Home Server Blog : More Hockey Puck Photos ttfn David Technorati Tags: Home Server , Cool

I was browsing Vijay's blog and notices a link to Sean Daniel's blog discussing Cougar. While there are many details of Cougar still to be released and some I would imagine still to be decided, here are some of the most interesting things he said: There will be a migration too that will take you from your current SBS to Cougar on ANOTHER BOX. We are still working on this solution. The SBS Backup solution is being completely re-vamped. However, we have made the full switch, and the backup solution will no longer support backing up to tape. Using snapshot technology, the backups will be extremely quick using incrementals that can be scheduled as often as every 30 minutes. A copy of NTBackup will be able to extract files from the old SBS 2003 format, but no new data can be added. Cougar will need to be installed behind some kind of firewall and the single-NIC model will be the only mode. You must use a firewall in front of the SBS box, this can be a hardware router type item, or a software firewall such as ISA. There is more at SeanDaniel.com - SBS 2003 and Technology Discussions: Hey! Where's my next version of SBS? , however I thought that was interesting enough to start things off. ttfn David Technorati tags: Cougar , SBS , Backup , Migration , ISA , x64

We already have suggested that this will be coming in the next version of SBS, so you might want to start playing around with this now. If you are an Action Pack subscriber you should be able to do this anyway. I thought these might be useful to you Download the 90-day Evaluation Software, read White Papers and more here... http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/sce/default.mspx Configuration management is becoming more important and while I don't expect the majority of the small business partner community to adopt this, some might be interested in how this can help them and make up their own mind. System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Beta 2 Product Feature Quizzes The System Center Configuration Manager 2007 User Assistance team has created a set of 7 quizzes to help you assess your understanding of the dependencies and requirements for key features of Configuration Manager. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b9fb478a-ec98-47f2-b31e-57443a8ae88f&DisplayLang=en Configuration Manager Documentation Library Download the latest online version of the Configuration Manager Documentation Library. More recent than the documentation available on the Beta 2 CD. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sms/smsv4/smsv4_help/6ffe5c59-3858-49c5-83cb-16f63823187c.mspx?mfr=true ttfn David Technorati Tags: System Center Essentials , Configuration Management

OK, so this is beta number 3 for the day and the one I use for about 95% of my blog writing. Hope along to Writer Zone: Windows Live Writer Beta 2 Now Available to get all the details, but once again, here is the summary: from here :-) This release incorporates a ton of feedback from our discussion forums and your blogs. Here are some of the new features you'll find in Beta 2: New Authoring Capabilities Inline spell checking Table editing Ability to add categories Page authoring for WordPress and TypePad Support for excerpts and extended entries Improved hyperlinking and image insertion Paste Special Integration and Compatibility SharePoint 2007 support New APIs enabling custom extensions by weblog providers Automatic synchronization of local and online edits Integration with Windows Live Gallery Support for Blogger Labels Plus... New look and feel Available in 6 languages Improved accessibility and keyboard support Many other frequently requested enhancements! Tables and spell checking Adding categories Page authoring We're also excited to announce that Windows Live Spaces , WordPress , and TypePad have all taken advantage of our new Provider Customization API to expose additional service-specific features within the Writer UI. ttfn David Technorati Tags: beta , live , writer

This is beta number two from the Live team today - Windows Live Mail. My family now use it to access our Window Live Hotmail and other e-mail accounts. Anyway, for all the gossip, hop over to their blog at Windows Live Mail . Below is what has changed (well, in fact this is less that what has changed as there is so much goodness - go to the blog to get more information) Click here to get the latest build! Here are the build specifics... Build #: 12.0.1184.0517 (just refer to it as build 1184); Languages available: English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese What’s New? Setup It’s much faster than it was in the past. Shortcuts for Windows Mail and OE will be replaced by WL Mail shortcuts. New Windows Live location in the Start Menu. Sign-In Auto-configuration of your accounts. Windows Live ID (formerly known as Passport…) signin not required. Migration of your old accounts. Now you’re in! Sleek new frame Improved shortcut buttons Compact View for folders No more visual advertisements Updates to the compose page Stationery button in the toolbar! Improved Spell-checking. Summary tab for contact info. ttfn David Technorati Tags: beta , Live , Mail

I know that you like the odd beta, so this is the 1st of 3 I will post today, so enjoy the code. Lots more information and pictures at Inside Windows Live Messenger . Important Details: Get Messenger 8.5 Beta1 (build 517) here Markets (Country + Language) in order to get this Beta out asap we limited the number of supported markets. If your market is not listed below, please know that we are working on it! English - United States, United Kingdom, India French - France Japanese - Japan German - Germany Chinese (Simplified) - China Spanish - United States, Spain What's new (ever get the feeling that this is a usability and eye candy update) Setup - the look, the desktop short cut, the start menu short cuts, Microsoft Update Sign-in - the look Menus - the look and feel Contact Window - the look Conversation Window - the look and a little feel New Emoticon - the bunny ttfn David Technorati Tags: beta , Messenger , Live

Just a quick one - I was playing around with SQL2005 on my Longhorn server and I could not connect from a remote machine - Ahh I thought, the firewall is in the way, but it turned out I had to do 3 or 4 things to get things working. The Microsoft KB article that pointed to the light was How to configure SQL Server 2005 to allow remote connections which covers how to enable the firewall for the 2 programs you need and so on. When you try to connect to an instance of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 from a remote computer, you may receive an error message. This problem may occur when you use any program to connect to SQL Server. For example, you receive the following error message when you use the SQLCMD utility to connect to SQL Server: Sqlcmd: Error: Microsoft SQL Native Client: An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. This problem may occur when SQL Server 2005 is not configured to accept remote connections. By default, SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition do not allow remote connections. To configure SQL Server 2005 to allow remote connections, complete all the following steps: Enable remote connections on the instance of SQL Server that you want to connect to from a remote computer. Turn on the SQL Server Browser service. Configure the firewall to allow network traffic that is related to SQL Server and to the SQL Server Browser service. Well, the above is all well and good, but we also need to remember that in a Vista and Longhorn setup the "admin" accounts do not have admin control over the database, so you may well also need to run the SQL 2005 Surface Area tool that enables you to add administrators I also found I had to enable network connections by going to the SQL Server Configuration Manager and enabling TCP connections on my IP v4 network. ttfn David Technorati tags: SQL , Vista , Longhorn...

Windows Longhorn Beta 3 Microsoft have unveiled the first publicly available test version of Windows Server, code-named “Longhorn” as Beta 3. The release allows people to evaluate the increased control, flexibility and protection and is available for download today at http://www.microsoft.com/getbeta3 . Please note this public beta is not supported for use in a production environment. The final version of Windows Server “Longhorn” is on track for release to manufacturing in the second half of 2007. http://www.microsoft.com/getbeta3 Windows Server "Longhorn": Server Core Organisations need their servers to be running effectively for as much time as possible. Windows Server "Longhorn" Server Core helps organisations to achieve this goal. Now, administrators can choose to install Windows Server "Longhorn" with only core server functionality and without any extra overhead. By reducing the roles that can be performed by the server, and removing the graphic user interface (GUI), the organisation can expect improved security and reduced management overhead. The full list of Server Core roles includes: DNS Server, DHCP Server , Active Directory Domain Controller (including Read Only Domain Controllers), File Server, Print Server, Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services, Media Services and Virtualisation. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6687608 ttfn David Technorati tags: Longhorn

I saw the news about Silverlight and the things that struck me was that it was a) cross platform and b) provided a fantastic experience. You can also use the Expression tools to build this stuff. So much was I impressed by the stuff that I have hosted it on my server for you to see what is there. To find out more go to Microsoft Silverlight It does pretty graphics, movies, effects like turning pages and more. If you install the runtime (you must have .Net 3.0 installed - i.e. native on Vista and installable for Windows XP) then pop along to http://uksbsguy.com/febctpsamples to see the demos. To get started you need to do some downloading (click below for Windows or http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/asp/downloads.aspx for Windows and MAC): System Requirements and Installation Instructions There are a number of blogs on this product and they can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/asp/blogs.aspx . It is also worth noting that the Silverlight web site ( http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight ) will be enabled with this technology today :-) Ok, so to the tech demos - obviously download the Sample Code for youself from the downloads pages about, however, the samples on the site look like this: Film Strip Provides a simple tool to show a group of bitmaps in something like an old fashioned movie film reel (hint, click the arrows at the bottom of the screen) Grand Piano Play 1 octive on the piano using the keys on your keyboard (z->m for the white keys for C through to B and then SDGHJ form the flats or black notes) PageTurn This is an electronic magazine with realistic page turning experience - inside a browser!! Grab the corner of the page on the bottom left to turn the pages and click the little two page icon in the far bottom corner of the screen to show the thumbnails. Sleek Video Player This video player itself did not inspire me much, however the video did make me laugh a lot!! I did notice that when I hover over the bottom of the video I get the option to move the slider along, which is neat! Sprawling...

OK guys, so this is NOT Cougar - don't expect a beta of this for a while - I will post when we are getting closer, honest - however if you want to get a taste of where the product is heading too, then download Longhorn. For real flavour, you might want to get the 64-bit version as this is what you will be running with SBS v.next. Source: Microsoft Windows Server code name "Longhorn" Home ttfn David Technorati tags: Longhorn , 64-bit , download , beta 3

Help us to shape next-generation 64-bit technology We are shipping a private beta of our upcoming 64-bit server for medium-size businesses, codenamed 'Centro', and we're looking for partners to test the technology and give us feedback. The server, which is an x64-only version of Longhorn targeted at smaller enterprises, will integrate Exchange 2007, System Centre Essentials, SQL Server 2005 and ISA Server. To sign up to the beta programme, go to http://connect.microsoft.com/ , click on 'Invitations' (in the left-hand navigation) and sign in with your Windows Live ID (Passport ID). Then enter the following invite ID; Extr-GHBC-JCJM. You will be asked to take a short survey. When you have completed the survey you will receive an email from MsftConn@microsoft.com . If you don't already trust this address, please add it to your trusted email addresses. More information on the beta programme More information on Centro Technorati tags: Centro , Beta , Exchange 2007 , System Center Essentials , SQL Server 2005

I had a partner ask me about Office Live today, so these are the places you need to start: 1) Client SDK - Windows Live ID Client 1.0 SDK in Alpha 2) Web Based Info - http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/showpost.aspx?postid=924592&siteid=1 and http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905514.aspx 3) Windows SharePoint v3 APIs - Working with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Web Services (what is supported from WSSv3 and what is blocked) 4) Some important sections: How to: Integrate Access 2007 and Excel 2007 with Office Live How to: Integrate Office Live with other Office 2007 applications Chris's unofficial Office Live developer blog That is it for now - the client SDK is key - you can build rich client applications and then share data via the OfficeLive web. nice. ttfn David Technorati tags: Office Live , Live , Saas , Software as a service , software with service

I am cheating as this artwork is all from the Office Live Website. You can go and claim your own domain and web site for free by going to http://office.microsoft.com/en-GB/officelive/default.aspx . This is an amazing solution for those customers who are too small for SBS or want as much as possible off premise, or want hosted solutions, but don't want full Exchange. Have a go!! ttfn David FREE Attract new customers Get started on the Web for FREE Create a professional Web site Learn more FREE Sign up now FREE .co.uk domain name for the first 10,000 UK customers Compare services Generate repeat business Create a professional Web site Organise your customer information online Share documents with online Workspaces Learn more Free during Beta Sign up now FREE .co.uk domain name for the first 10,000 UK customers Essentials = FREE during Beta, then £11.95 per month * * price excludes VAT Stay on top of your business Create a professional Web site Manage your projects and tasks Organise your customer information online Access your e-mail and appointments from the road Plus more space, more users, and more tools Learn more Free during Beta Sign up now FREE .co.uk domain name for the first 10,000 UK customers Premium = FREE during Beta, then £22.95 per month * * price excludes VAT

It is strange how some things are so different and yet so similar. If I was to talk to you about a product from Microsoft that ran Windows, Exchange, SQL and ISA and had some management capability then you might think I was talking about SBS, but this time, that is not so. This time I am talking about the grown up brother - codename "Centro". We are looking for a few good men (or women) to test this and potentially even roll this out with some customers. This is not something to just say yes to without actually being able to test it somehow, but if you think this is you, then here are the details: Windows Server "Centro" Technical Beta and Technology Adopter Programme Microsoft are shipping a private beta of its upcoming 64-bit server product for midsize businesses, codenamed "Centro. The server, which is an x64-only version of Longhorn targeted at smaller enterprises will integrate together Exchange 2007, System Centre Essentials, SQL Server 2005 and ISA Server. We are urgently looking for Partners to give us feedback on Windows Server “Centro”. If you have a partner who is willing to test some next generation technology then please ask them to sign up to the Beta. Centro will provide IT professionals in midsize businesses with simplified, guided installation across multiple servers, using a single administration console that will provide a unified view of the network . That will include providing consolidated alerts and automated wizards. Centro, which is due out in 2008, will also provide integrated license reporting aimed at making it easier for IT professionals to track the licenses used in their company. How Partners sign up to the Beta: Go to http://connect.microsoft.com , click on Invitations sign in with their Windows Live ID (Passport ID) and enter the following invite ID; Extr-GHBC-JCJM . They will be asked to take a short Survey. Once they complete the survey they should look for an email from MsftConn@microsoft.com . If you don't already trust this address, please add it to your trusted email addresses...

Finally Microsoft will deliver you a server that sits at home, is ideally suited for everyone in the house to use. It could even find itself into really small businesses in combination with Offie Live (backup and central monitoring provided by Home Server and e-mail, calendar, domain etc provided by Live). So what is it, well, think SBS, remove Exchange, SQL and ISA, update the wizards and remote access to be applicable for data sharing and a home network (but still keep them), then add some cool features like adding new disks the existing sharing volumes so exapansion is simply slotting in a new disk. This is Quattro, or Q or Home Server and the beta is coming soon too!! As is always, several people already blogged on it and gave some great links, but go check out the following: The Press Release Susan bradley's tour de force and more Official SBS, Centro & Home Server Blog 2nd Blog Susanne's hardware find and link to the marketing site and finally, even Vlad wanted one !! Now there are a few people who say they don't want a server at home, in any form, which is just fine - don't worry about the product - just because it is there does not mean you have to buy it. For those who do, this is cool... now how can I get on the beta ;-) ttfn David